Description

Preface

The Eye Book has been a challenge to write because it walks a tightrope
between being informative in the manner of a textbook and providing a
book that is simply an interesting read about eyes. I intended a balance of
both, but if I have slipped, then it is towards general interest. After all,
there are many prestigious textbooks on eye structure and function, and
just as many again that are totally unintelligible to the general reader who
wants to know a little more about the most precious sense of sight.

Textbooks tend to be about eye structure, vision, visual aids, eye com-
plaints and so on, but they rarely attempt to cover more than a narrow

remit in great detail. What I have tried to do is to soar through all of these
and also to embrace several other areas including the different kinds of eye
professionals, historical eye care, famous people who have coped with eye
problems, eye make-up, eyes in society, and eyes in mythology and religion.
Finally I end up with a discussion of the appalling tragedy that is world

blindness and what may be developed in the future to combat the ever-
growing problem of visual handicap in both the developed and the nderdeveloped world.